by Karen Creamer | May 3, 2023 | (it's all about the) food, #getoutside, Connection, gardening
It’s one of my favorite times of year: the mostly blank slate garden.
Deciding what to grow this year and seeing what lived through the winter.
My habit is to way, way, way overplant tomatoes, such that my tomato bed turns into a jungle from which it is difficult to extract any actual edible tomatoes before they split, mold, or become otherwise unappetizing. I am going to do my best to avoid that this year–and yes, I say this every year. Maybe if I declare in advance of plant shopping that I will grow one heirloom, one purple/orange/or yellow, one cherry, and one early variety then I will stick to that plan. Okay, so already know I won’t because I want a Purple Cherokee and I want a Lemon Boy, and I want a Supersweet 100 and a Sun Gold… Keep reading
by Karen Creamer | Apr 25, 2023 | (it's all about the) food, Clarity
I recently realized that I was drinking up to six cups of coffee a day and decided (for reasons that I won’t go into right now) that it was excessive and perhaps could bear some, um, reduction.
I have my favorite kinds of coffee, and one of them was Green Mountain’s Spicy Eggnog, which was discontinued years ago. I still had 2 of the k-cups left that I saved for a special occasion (one of which I used last week when I was feeling sorry for myself and needed some cheering up).
Periodically I would look online to see if they might magically appear again but sadly, they have not. Keep reading
by Karen Creamer | Apr 16, 2023 | at camp, Comfort
We waited for almost a year before we finally got the call:
They would (finally!) be coming to drill the well at camp!!
It turned out to be a multi-day project. The noise level was no where near what I thought it would be, which was nice, since they were drilling literally steps from our window! This was great because it gave me an up close and personal view of the action.
After the well was finished, the ground was too soft for them to extricate their equipment right away (thank you, Maine spring mud season!) so we had a lawn ornament for a few days. But I didn’t care! We finally had a well!
Now if only they would come back to put a pump on it ….
Here’s some more photos: Keep reading
by Karen Creamer | Mar 28, 2023 | (it's all about the) food, Connection
I grabbed a box (admittedly, it had been on the shelf for a while) of raisins to throw in my oatmeal this morning and they were very hard, dry, and generally unappealing looking. I was about to give them to the chickens–who are far less fussy than I am–to eat when I remembered a trick my grandmother taught me years ago, when I was making cookies.
I liked to add raisins to the chocolate chip cookies and sometimes, just like in my present life, they had been on the pantry shelf for awhile.
She told me to pour boiling water over them and let them sit for a bit, and drain the water off. Keep reading
by Karen Creamer | Mar 21, 2023 | Book Reviews, books, Connection
I knew almost nothing about this book before requested it from the library. I don’t even remember how I heard about it but it was next in the pile, and so I started reading it.
Right away, Small World had my attention because it mentioned a place that I had actually worked, The Walter E. Fernald State School, one of my first jobs after I became a nurse.
A bit later in the book it mentions Paragon Park and Nantasket Beach. My parents met there, and my grandmother had a house in that area for many years. We often visited her for Sunday dinner when I was younger. Keep reading
Karen Creamer
